Ondo poll: Injustice against Jegede won’t stand, Mimiko insists

Ondo state governor , Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has assured that the injustice done with the substitution of the name of  the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate in the November 26  gubernatorial election, Mr Eyitayo Jegede, would not stand.

Speaking  with journalists at the Government House in Akure, on Sunday, he said what happened with the substitution was a contrived  conspiracy because the decision of  INEC would not find comfort  in justice, in principle, in law, and in morality.

He said redress had been sought by Jegede, PDP and major stakeholders, assuring that justice would be done “because the impunity will not stand”.

Mimiko observed that the contraption  remains a bizarre  development in the nation’s politics  and particularly in the body polity of the state. It is something bizarre, abnormal and without precedent in polity, he said.

The governor, however, thanked the people of the state for their matured action  and attitude  of not resulting to self help  and violence even in the face of the unwarranted provocation unleashed through the back door.

“You have comported yourselves in a very commendable way. Your peaceful but rugged  and persistent resistance in the last three and half weeks  would go down in the record of the new Ondo state,” Mimiko said.

He debunked insinuations that he went to see President Muhammadu Buhari, as a prelude to crossing over to the APC or any other political party.

According to him, he had to see the president in his capacity as the Chief Security Officer of the country on the need to allow Justice to prevail. He said Mr President gave his word that he would ensure that justice is done, stressing: I have no cause to doubt him”

Meanwhile, a group, the Coalition for Stable Democracy (CSD), has expressed concern over what it called the “suspicious silence” of the pro-democracy movement and right groups on the controversial reversal of the candidature of Jegede as PDP standard bearer in the Nov 4 election.

The group said it had become necessary for all lovers of democracy to speak out against the injustice melted out by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Jegede by replacing his name with that of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, in various circumstance.

In a statement by its national secretary, Abdulahi Sanni, issued in Kaduna , the group said all men of good conscience should speak in condemnation of the act, especially considering the allegations that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) was behind the Ondo PDP crisis.

“It is indeed condemnable given the insinuations that a governor from the Northern part of the country and a few others close to establishment are the ones manipulating INEC, at a time when all hands ought to be on deck to ensure that the electoral body regain its loss glory since the exit of Professor Attahiru Jega,”the group said.